After knocking off the NHL’s top team in the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night, the Nashville Predators traveled to take on the league’s second-best team, the New Jersey Devils on Monday evening. Unfortunately, the team followed up it’s most dominant performance of the year with easily one of the worst – just hours after the team’s announcement of the trade of Philip Tomasino to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Filip Forsberg kicked off the scoring by taking a sharp-angled shot against the right wall on the team’s first shot of the game – although that shot on goal came after New Jersey had seven of their own. Still, Forsberg picked up his ninth goal of the season and first since the win against Utah, this time unassisted.
With the Predators chasing possession throughout the first, Juuse Saros looked sharp to begin the game until an odd-man rush with Dawson Mercer, Johnathan Kovacevic and former Predator Erik Haula beat the Finnish netminder to tie the game at one apiece.
As the game moved to the second period, the Devils controlled the game even more than they did in the first. In the period, the Devils outshot the Predators 19-10, but of those 19, there were three in particular that changed the game from a deadlock to a rout – Nico Hischier’s natural hat trick just over 13 minutes of the middle frame. Timo Meier took on two Predators by himself into the New Jersey offensive zone, waited until Hischier came streaking in beside him, and the New Jersey captain found the back of the net and a 2-1 lead.
Midway through the period, yet another bad habit of the Predators reared it’s ugly head. Nashville committed it’s fourth penalty for too many men (tied for the league lead), and the NHL’s top penalty kill was unable to stop Hischier once again – Saros was bombarded early in the power play, and Nico took a rebound from the bottom of the right circle, pushing the lead to two midway through the second.
With just over three minutes remaining in the period, a Brady Skjei turnover in the neutral zone to Hischier put the Devils captain behind everyone, and won the one on zero matchup against Saros, completing the natural hat trick and pushing the game to 4-1, and would lead to Juuse Saros being pulled from the game after the period had ended.
The performance in each period was worse than the last, and the final frame was as bad as it’s been all season – and not by fault of Scott Wedgewood, who came in relief of Juuse Saros.
The good news? Zachary L’Heureux scored his second of the year (and his career), taking advantage of a New Jersey line change and taking a beautiful Roman Josi pass from the Predators bench into the OZ and beating Jacob Markstrom to cut the New Jersey lead to two.
That would be the final “good” moment for the team in a period that felt highly emblematic of the season as a whole. The Predators were outshot 16-3 – and this was the period in which they had two power plays – one minor on Haula and a major on Timo Meier who was ejected for a particularly nasty cross-check on L’Heureux. The Predators managed only a single shot on goal in those five minutes of the advantage and with the hometown crowd screaming as the final seconds of the kill ticked away, Justin Downing found the empty net with under three minutes remaining to put a bow on the game, and make the final score 5-2, sending the Nashville Predators to 7-12-3, and the fourth-worst record in the league.
Three Stars of the Game
Third Star: NJ D Johnathan Kovacevic – Two assists, two points
Second Star: NJ F Erik Haula – One goal, one point
First Star: NJ F Nico Hischier – Three goals (natural hat trick), three points